Flashback

1976. VHS VCR comes home – literally if you bought one.  Beta is better, but VHS wins.  Beta player owners realize the game is up – and decide to cryogenically freeze players until the masses realize what they are missing.

1978 – Laserdisc debuts in Atlanta, GA.  Far superior to anything before.  Beta folks run out and buy it.  VHS still dominates. Beta folks strike out again.

1981 – MTV arrives. Video Killed the Radio Star debuts. Everyone watches it – because it is the first video to be seen on the station.

Flashback

1980′s – VCRs are huge – I mean big as in large items on top of your TV. They are also big in the market – people are buying them.

Flashback

1990′s – VHS still dominates. Masses own a VCR.  DVD players appear in 1994.  The masses start buying them in droves in 1998.

1995 – Real Media arrives on the internet scene streaming an entire baseball game that probably no one watched.

Flashback

2000′s – HD-DVD shows up, so does Blu-Ray. Beta and Lasderdisc fans rejoice! Blu-Ray wins. People who bought HD-DVD players – learn that they make great flying objects out of five story buildings.  Beta folks still waiting for Beta to return.

2012 – Mobile video consumption rises up to 5.4 percent, which may seem nominal, but it is a 64 percent increase from April of the same year. (Ooyala, Nov. 2012)

2013 -  LMSs are not the only learning system in town. The new kids of the block (please no jokes here) are Video Learning Platforms. While they have been making roads in the educational markets for the past few years, some solutions start to target the corporate market too.

Grab your Video

Video in e-learning means something quite different than video in its usual term.

• Screen recording and capture – often seen in demos or software or web tutorials
• Screen recording and capture with audio narration
• Live broadcasting – Steve is in Long Beach, Anna is in Moscow – the communicate in real time with or without a live audience – i.e. watching via their computers or mobile device (may include synched slides, but not a requirement)
• Taped live broadcast – taped earlier at some point and then posted for people to view
• Video itself -  streamed, recorded, edited then posted, posted without editing,  etc.  – may/may not include audio incl. background
• Video captured with a smartphone, tablet, digital camera (if available), DV and HD DVC (digital video camcorders), web cam, etc. – may/may not include audio incl. background

Not your Mom and Dad’s VCR

While a video learning platform might have multiple products at the end of the day it is built upon two key components (which they all have in some form)

• Recording device – Some call it a recorder
• Video content management system – this is where all your wonderful videos get housed, including audio podcasts (some offer this feature too), audio, slides, etc. – this is the backbone of the platform

On the recorder side you have a device that can record a variety of things – from your web cam to live broadcasting to screen recording and captures to meetings and much more.  All the VLPs have a recorder (they may call it something else though).

Recorders also

• Stream your video
• Publish your video  – more on this in a sec.
• Deliver live presentations/events/meetings/webcast – to name a few
• Synch documents, slides with your presentation
• Other options – depends on the vendor

VCMS

The video content management platform is a requirement if you are going to use the VLP as a standalone and not in a LMS – yes you can interface (more on that shortly).  The other requirement is that..uh, you know.. uh RECORDER!

Typically the video content management platform consists of (please note: that some vendors call their VCMS something else)

• Media Library – Where your videos, audio, etc. is housed
• Folders – think categories – you can put videos in each folder depending on topic, company (if you are offering a B2B angle), departments, events, basically however you want it
• Encoding  and Processing
• M-Learning support – all devices including iPad and other tablets
• Can interface with learning management systems – including educational focused LMSs – always contact your vendor if you want to go this route — i.e. interface/integration/extension
• Ability for end user to see the videos – i.e. check out which videos they want to view, click on them, watch them, and yes even buy them (some vendors offer e-commerce)
• Analytics and Reporting – If you are expecting similar to a LMS it is not going to happen, but for most folks they want to know how many times did Sue watch the video, which videos did she watch, how long did she watch, video rankings – can include “most popular”, “highest rated”, “most commented”, “most liked”
• Access control – Think Admin control
• Can group a set of learners/viewers to see ABC videos and then set a group of learners or even one learner to see a totally different set of videos
• User names/passwords, etc. – similar in many ways to the LMS side of the house in terms of user names/passwords
• Video search – think video search engine
• A sharing function of some sort – might be via social media
• Slide synching
• HTML5 support
• SaaS or on your own servers – they can do both, but ideally prefer SaaS (they host it)

Optional (not all VLPs offer this, hence optional)

• Video transcript – this is a must IMO because it enables your viewers to see the text below (not as close caption)
• Narrative transcript – When the person says “dog” it goes right to the video text transcript where the word “dog” is shown, often this is displayed on the VLP screen (not on your video) with specific clips, so you just click the clip which already contains the word or words and watch it – and yes see it

This is great because you no longer have to watch the entire video or try to hit rewind to go right where the person talks about what you want to hear. Narrative is a must feature IMO.

• SCORM compliant
• 508c compliant
• Offline viewing
• Video editing
• Plugins
• E-commerce
• APIs – as in their (video learning platform itself) API is open
• Player templates
• Playlists
• Close captions support
• Social components – beyond the share functionality
• Users can “like”, “rate”, “leave comments”, “share”
• Users can download videos
• Transcription services – already in the platform. Vendor has an agreement with a 3rd party which will transcribe your entire video and publish the text to match the video. This is a nice feature because you do not have to do it yourself – which is available to you as well.

It is all done within the platform, so you do not have to send the video to be transcribed to the 3rd party vendor, wait for it to get back and then publish. It is all self-contained.  This is typically an additional cost – i.e. having an actual human (which is how it works) transcribes your video.

Another capability of transcription services is the ability to change the language. So if your video text initially is in English and you want to change it to German you can via the platform. Again, similar to how the transcription service works, with a real human being translating the text.

Always an additional cost.  Please note that this is in reference to the video text transcript and not the user interface or VLP layout.

• Supports H.264, MP4, MOV, WMA, AICC, etc. – always check with the vendor – they all support HD
• Skinning and Branding inc. your own logo (not all the vendors offer this option. If they do it is often included at no charge.) If your VLP is on your own servers most of the vendors will allow you to customize the CSS.
• Custom domain
• Multiple layouts. Knowledge Vision offers 85 different layouts – that is a lot
• Multilingual – as in the user interface, labels, etc. – again not everyone supports multiple languages (besides English). Don’t assume that when they say “we support multiple languages” it means they support nine languages. One vendor supports 25 languages, another supports two.
• Can change labels, headers, fonts – not everyone offers this ability

Video Break

Uh it is an actual video break. So here is a video for you:

Video Break is over

Video V-Costs

You might be thinking wow this sounds great, but I bet it costs a fortune and you would be incorrect.

VLPs are actually very inexpensive when compared to the LMS market.

Fees are not necessarily charged by seats (i.e. active users) which can create confusion when trying to compare pricing apples to apples.

Costs

• Charging by the number of recorders you purchase and the number of usage hours.  A recorder is tied to a machine (computer). So if you have five people using one computer for the recorder, you get charged only for one license. If the same five are all using recorders on five different computers it equals five licenses.  The usage hours  (which are quite high) equate to the number of hours which can be recorded/viewing. Using this pricing model, the number of people viewing is unlimited.
• Charging by active users
• Charging by active presentations.  Active presentations are defined by the number of videos on the platform. The time of each video is irrelevant.  For example, you have 20 videos uploaded, of which eight are ten minutes in length and the rest are 85 minutes in length. Number of active presentations is 20.

With this pricing model – unlimited viewership, unlimited people accessing the system. 

• One flat fee – Appears in open source platforms. Be aware that an open source platform is just how you imagine it – you have to fully customize it.
• Charging by number of users, storage and bandwidth

Many of the vendors have a setup fee – but this is not universal.  The same with support – can be the whole thing or just parts and then you pay extra for additional support levels.

Top Five Video Players

1. Panopto – Very finesse, but lacks the ability to remove their own logo, skinning – as in your colors not doable, no social. Offers recorders pricing model and also active users model – you choose. Does offer educational pricing.  Targets education, non-profit and corporate markets.  SCORM Compliant.
2. KnowledgeVision – Wonderful platform, loads of features – uses the active presentation pricing model.  Offers three editions – may offer educational pricing – please ask.  The KV Studio is the product to look at.  Targets education, non-profit and corporate markets. SCORM Compliant.
3. Kaltura – Open source platform, extremely robust.  The platform is not free – you have to pay. They do also additional packages and add-ons, and there is a cost.  What I love is their Exchange marketplace which lists an extensive list of partners that can integrate, support or work with their product. Reminds me of similar marketplaces like Google Apps or Intuit. No SCORM support. Can create a channel in the Roku store.
   
4. Vidizmo – Has a nice set of features. Back end is easy to use. Pricing model is active users. Has potential. SCORM Compliant. 
5. MediaCore – UI is similar to YouTube, but they lack video text transcript, narrative search and a few other feature sets. Heavily focused on education market.  Not sure if they have any corporate clients. While the site says you can customize the colors of your system that is incorrect (according to a person I spoke with at MediaCore).

Bottom Line

Video Learning Platforms are here to stay and more importantly, ready to take off both in terms of usage and feature sets.

If I was looking at entering the e-learning market as a vendor, I’d take a hard look at the VLP space and then I would jump in feet first.

Just making sure that I don’t hit a beta video player that someone has finally realized isn’t coming back.

Because it isn’t.

E-Learning 24/7

34.061403 -118.312222

Flashback

1976. VHS VCR comes home – literally if you bought one.  Beta is better, but VHS wins.  Beta player owners realize the game is up – and decide to cryogenically freeze players until the masses realize what they are missing.

1978 – Laserdisc debuts in Atlanta, GA.  Far superior to anything before.  Beta folks run out and buy it.  VHS still dominates. Beta folks strike out again.

1981 – MTV arrives. Video Killed the Radio Star debuts. Everyone watches it – because it is the first video to be seen on the station.

Flashback

1980′s – VCRs are huge – I mean big as in large items on top of your TV. They are also big in the market – people are buying them.

Flashback

1990′s – VHS still dominates. Masses own a VCR.  DVD players appear in 1994.  The masses start buying them in droves in 1998.

1995 – Real Media arrives on the internet scene streaming an entire baseball game that probably no one watched.

Flashback

2000′s – HD-DVD shows up, so does Blu-Ray. Beta and Lasderdisc fans rejoice! Blu-Ray wins. People who bought HD-DVD players – learn that they make great flying objects out of five story buildings.  Beta folks still waiting for Beta to return.

2012 – Mobile video consumption rises up to 5.4 percent, which may seem nominal, but it is a 64 percent increase from April of the same year. (Ooyala, Nov. 2012)

2013 -  LMSs are not the only learning system in town. The new kids of the block (please no jokes here) are Video Learning Platforms. While they have been making roads in the educational markets for the past few years, some solutions start to target the corporate market too.

Grab your Video

Video in e-learning means something quite different than video in its usual term.

• Screen recording and capture – often seen in demos or software or web tutorials
• Screen recording and capture with audio narration
• Live broadcasting – Steve is in Long Beach, Anna is in Moscow – the communicate in real time with or without a live audience – i.e. watching via their computers or mobile device (may include synched slides, but not a requirement)
• Taped live broadcast – taped earlier at some point and then posted for people to view
• Video itself -  streamed, recorded, edited then posted, posted without editing,  etc.  – may/may not include audio incl. background
• Video captured with a smartphone, tablet, digital camera (if available), DV and HD DVC (digital video camcorders), web cam, etc. – may/may not include audio incl. background

Not your Mom and Dad’s VCR

While a video learning platform might have multiple products at the end of the day it is built upon two key components (which they all have in some form)

• Recording device – Some call it a recorder
• Video content management system – this is where all your wonderful videos get housed, including audio podcasts (some offer this feature too), audio, slides, etc. – this is the backbone of the platform

On the recorder side you have a device that can record a variety of things – from your web cam to live broadcasting to screen recording and captures to meetings and much more.  All the VLPs have a recorder (they may call it something else though).

Recorders also

• Stream your video
• Publish your video  – more on this in a sec.
• Deliver live presentations/events/meetings/webcast – to name a few
• Synch documents, slides with your presentation
• Other options – depends on the vendor

VCMS

The video content management platform is a requirement if you are going to use the VLP as a standalone and not in a LMS – yes you can interface (more on that shortly).  The other requirement is that..uh, you know.. uh RECORDER!

Typically the video content management platform consists of (please note: that some vendors call their VCMS something else)

• Media Library – Where your videos, audio, etc. is housed
• Folders – think categories – you can put videos in each folder depending on topic, company (if you are offering a B2B angle), departments, events, basically however you want it
• Encoding  and Processing
• M-Learning support – all devices including iPad and other tablets
• Can interface with learning management systems – including educational focused LMSs – always contact your vendor if you want to go this route — i.e. interface/integration/extension
• Ability for end user to see the videos – i.e. check out which videos they want to view, click on them, watch them, and yes even buy them (some vendors offer e-commerce)
• Analytics and Reporting – If you are expecting similar to a LMS it is not going to happen, but for most folks they want to know how many times did Sue watch the video, which videos did she watch, how long did she watch, video rankings – can include “most popular”, “highest rated”, “most commented”, “most liked”
• Access control – Think Admin control
• Can group a set of learners/viewers to see ABC videos and then set a group of learners or even one learner to see a totally different set of videos
• User names/passwords, etc. – similar in many ways to the LMS side of the house in terms of user names/passwords
• Video search – think video search engine
• A sharing function of some sort – might be via social media
• Slide synching
• HTML5 support
• SaaS or on your own servers – they can do both, but ideally prefer SaaS (they host it)

Optional (not all VLPs offer this, hence optional)

• Video transcript – this is a must IMO because it enables your viewers to see the text below (not as close caption)
• Narrative transcript – When the person says “dog” it goes right to the video text transcript where the word “dog” is shown, often this is displayed on the VLP screen (not on your video) with specific clips, so you just click the clip which already contains the word or words and watch it – and yes see it

This is great because you no longer have to watch the entire video or try to hit rewind to go right where the person talks about what you want to hear. Narrative is a must feature IMO.

• SCORM compliant
• 508c compliant
• Offline viewing
• Video editing
• Plugins
• E-commerce
• APIs – as in their (video learning platform itself) API is open
• Player templates
• Playlists
• Close captions support
• Social components – beyond the share functionality
• Users can “like”, “rate”, “leave comments”, “share”
• Users can download videos
• Transcription services – already in the platform. Vendor has an agreement with a 3rd party which will transcribe your entire video and publish the text to match the video. This is a nice feature because you do not have to do it yourself – which is available to you as well.

It is all done within the platform, so you do not have to send the video to be transcribed to the 3rd party vendor, wait for it to get back and then publish. It is all self-contained.  This is typically an additional cost – i.e. having an actual human (which is how it works) transcribes your video.

Another capability of transcription services is the ability to change the language. So if your video text initially is in English and you want to change it to German you can via the platform. Again, similar to how the transcription service works, with a real human being translating the text.

Always an additional cost.  Please note that this is in reference to the video text transcript and not the user interface or VLP layout.

• Supports H.264, MP4, MOV, WMA, AICC, etc. – always check with the vendor – they all support HD
• Skinning and Branding inc. your own logo (not all the vendors offer this option. If they do it is often included at no charge.) If your VLP is on your own servers most of the vendors will allow you to customize the CSS.
• Custom domain
• Multiple layouts. Knowledge Vision offers 85 different layouts – that is a lot
• Multilingual – as in the user interface, labels, etc. – again not everyone supports multiple languages (besides English). Don’t assume that when they say “we support multiple languages” it means they support nine languages. One vendor supports 25 languages, another supports two.
• Can change labels, headers, fonts – not everyone offers this ability

Video Break

Uh it is an actual video break. So here is a video for you:

Video Break is over

Video V-Costs

You might be thinking wow this sounds great, but I bet it costs a fortune and you would be incorrect.

VLPs are actually very inexpensive when compared to the LMS market.

Fees are not necessarily charged by seats (i.e. active users) which can create confusion when trying to compare pricing apples to apples.

Costs

• Charging by the number of recorders you purchase and the number of usage hours.  A recorder is tied to a machine (computer). So if you have five people using one computer for the recorder, you get charged only for one license. If the same five are all using recorders on five different computers it equals five licenses.  The usage hours  (which are quite high) equate to the number of hours which can be recorded/viewing. Using this pricing model, the number of people viewing is unlimited.
• Charging by active users
• Charging by active presentations.  Active presentations are defined by the number of videos on the platform. The time of each video is irrelevant.  For example, you have 20 videos uploaded, of which eight are ten minutes in length and the rest are 85 minutes in length. Number of active presentations is 20.

With this pricing model – unlimited viewership, unlimited people accessing the system. 

• One flat fee – Appears in open source platforms. Be aware that an open source platform is just how you imagine it – you have to fully customize it.
• Charging by number of users, storage and bandwidth

Many of the vendors have a setup fee – but this is not universal.  The same with support – can be the whole thing or just parts and then you pay extra for additional support levels.

Top Five Video Players

1. Panopto – Very finesse, but lacks the ability to remove their own logo, skinning – as in your colors not doable, no social. Offers recorders pricing model and also active users model – you choose. Does offer educational pricing.  Targets education, non-profit and corporate markets.  SCORM Compliant.
2. KnowledgeVision – Wonderful platform, loads of features – uses the active presentation pricing model.  Offers three editions – may offer educational pricing – please ask.  The KV Studio is the product to look at.  Targets education, non-profit and corporate markets. SCORM Compliant.
3. Kaltura – Open source platform, extremely robust.  The platform is not free – you have to pay. They do also additional packages and add-ons, and there is a cost.  What I love is their Exchange marketplace which lists an extensive list of partners that can integrate, support or work with their product. Reminds me of similar marketplaces like Google Apps or Intuit. No SCORM support. Can create a channel in the Roku store.
   
4. Vidizmo – Has a nice set of features. Back end is easy to use. Pricing model is active users. Has potential. SCORM Compliant. 
5. MediaCore – UI is similar to YouTube, but they lack video text transcript, narrative search and a few other feature sets. Heavily focused on education market.  Not sure if they have any corporate clients. While the site says you can customize the colors of your system that is incorrect (according to a person I spoke with at MediaCore).

Bottom Line

Video Learning Platforms are here to stay and more importantly, ready to take off both in terms of usage and feature sets.

If I was looking at entering the e-learning market as a vendor, I’d take a hard look at the VLP space and then I would jump in feet first.

Just making sure that I don’t hit a beta video player that someone has finally realized isn’t coming back.

Because it isn’t.

E-Learning 24/7

34.061403 -118.312222

Everyone loves lists. Lists for the best books written in 1899 (right?), best products that work under water (summer time) and from the e-learning prospective – the best authoring tools.

Authoring tools are always changing – some for the better, others for the worst.

Therefore, new rankings are in order.

Here is how these new rankings will work throughout 2013:

• Debut this month, update in July, final top 25 in Dec.
• Vendors can move up, down or out of the rankings – after all it is on-going
• First ranking are the top ten, July rankings are top 25, final rankings are the top 25
• Listings can always be found on a new page called “rankings” which will appear in one month – thus eliminating the need to do a search (if applicable)
• Rankings are based on my directories which are updated monthly; I also keep a separate directory which will contain more vendors than listed within the visible directories – reason being it offers clients (those who hire me – buyers to have an added bonus, of course it contains much more info); that said the monthly directories provide key info and in future updates have new columns added
• There is never a quid pro quo, pay for play or whatever with my rankings. I’m not a lead gen for the vendors listed – rather the goal is to provide you with vendors that meet numerous criteria including UI, features, support/service, mobile, feedback from current and past clients and future game plans
• 100% independent. No spin. You want that – there are plenty of places out there that offer it. You will never find it here

Top Ten

I always prefer going from 10 to 1, it builds excitement.

#10: TechSmith Camtasia Studio – I’ve debated numerous times if a product that is more of a screen recorder with added feature sets deserves to be in an authoring tool set. However,with the added mobile piece, creation of professional videos, relay capability with various products including VLPs, it makes sense.

#9 iSpring Solutions- iSpring Suite – PowerPoint add on products are still a hot item in the space. This solution reminds me of Articulate Studio in terms of its capabilities, but at a lower cost. The new iSpring Pro 7 – currently in beta adds additional powerhouse features, including PPT to HTML5 output (which right now is a standalone product).

#8 Zenler Studio – Another PowerPoint driven product with some very cool feature sets including: eBook, screen recording, narration, simple to use, scenario builder (win!) and SCORM/AICC. While it support mobile, it cannot output to HTML5. Offers three versions.

#7 easygenerator- Proof that you do not need to be based in the states to have a very cool product. Features include adaptive learning, collaboration, scenario builder, SCORM, question pool/assessments and SaaS. They are reporting that in March 2013 you will be able to output to HTML5. IMO you want the fee based product. The freebie has limitations and frankly isn’t worth using.

#6 Brainshark – I have never been a fan of these guys in the past, but that has now changed. While their Slideshark app for the iPad is nifty, it is not the only product that showcases PPT and is free. That said, the enterprise version is really strong.

Features include: branching, assessment tool, convert slide notes to computer-generated audio via text-to-speech converter (11 voices/accents according to Brainshark), skinned, send links to access courses via social media, output to MP4, certificates and SCORM. Yeah it is another PPT spin product but does stand out.

#5 Epic – GoMo Authoring tool – Again an example of a cool product from outside of the states. This is really a product ideal for mobile which is quite intriguing. Features include: ability to view (offline) or via a native HTML web app, preview feature for iPad – ideal to verify that what you are publishing for mobile actually looks and works as it is intended, iPad, Android and Blackberry support (why?), SCORM and assessment tool.

#4 Courselab – Hey I am still a big fan of this product. It is ideal for instructional designers and e-learning developers, which is a rarity in today’s space. That said, the version I am talking about this time is the commercial one, although the free version will suffice for many folks.

Features on the commercial side include: 80 templates, VML/SVG vector objects, avatars – to a degree, object library, available in multiple languages including German, Russian, Arabic (very rare), Dutch, Japanese (rare), Spanish, French and English. Browser support includes Chrome, Opera (extremely rare) and Safari on the iPad. Oh it also supports IE, Safari on desktop/laptop and Firefox. Includes screen capture.

#3 ZebraZapps – I saw this product at TK13 and was totally blown away. The pro version is really geared towards instructional designers and e-learning developers. The app store is awesome and I wish more vendors would follow suit. As noted in my review of TK13, ZZ not only offers their own creations but also apps created by end users.

Rather than have a layout similar to Storyline (which reminds me a bit of Photoshop), this layout has something they call message centers with objects: including wires and nesting, which is hard to describe – so click to see an example). SaaS based, SCORM supported, layers and much more. The simple version could be used with someone who has limited tech skills, but I still believe that is ideal for instructional designers and developers.

#2 Articulate Storyline – I have to say that they are quite close to taking the number one spot, but they fall just a tad short. Why you may ask? Because they are having some slight issues – which I have heard from some end users and even from some Articulate folks at TK13. Also no offline/online synch unless via a LMS (which supports it).

Lastly this is still a work in progress product in the sense that they are still finding bugs and issues with the product, which while the fix with updates, it isn’t ideal for any authoring tool.

That said, this is still a really impressive product. For those who are wondering if they will ever offer a SaaS based version, I have been told it is under discussion and likely sometime down the road (not sure when that will be).

#1 dominKnow Claro – Still number one. Features include: SaaS, online/offline synch with their own tool, besides via a LMS that supports it, templates, multilingual (they report that the UI is available in 60 languages (beta right now) and the product itself supports nine languages), objects, branching, collaboration, HTML5 output (win!), people with zero to limited tech skills will find it easy to use, plus it offers enough ZOOM for instructional designers and e-learning developers.

Avatars, RLOs, media asset library, narration and web cam recording, screen recording and capturing, Tin Can API and I could go on and on.

Bonus Pick

I’m really intrigued by Go! Animate- which is not really an authoring tool but enables you to create scenarios with actors/avatars which can be lip synched with your voice. Plus each character (and they have a lot) can be fully customized right in the product. Output to MP4, so you can stick it into any authoring tool that supports it – as part of a course or standalone page. Mobile comes via MP4, but no Tin Can support. I walked away saying WOW.

Why isn’t?

• Lectora on the list? Not a top ten IMO. Solid product but frankly there are a lot of products that beat it.
• Rapid Intake – Hasn’t really done anything in the last several months. At one time very forward thinking, now run of the mill.
• Studio 09 – Again solid product, clearly in top 25, but I’m waiting to test Studio 13 to see what it can do. Articulate has told me that they will be providing me a version prior to release, so a product review can be done.

Why not Captivate

• Lags behind top tier products such as Claro, Storyline even Rapid Intake when it came to output to HTML5 and a few other features. For such a huge company as Adobe, the lack of forward thinking (first) is surprising.
• It is #12 (why – see first bullet point). Sure it works for instructional designers and those who are new to the space as a whole, but my take is that they can’t decide what to be – either a pure instructional designer/developer product – which they are not, or a rapid content authoring tool with some ID feature sets (which they are)

Bottom Line

So the first set of rankings are in. Before you say – what about LMSs, video learning platforms, and other – don’t worry – they will be posted next week and follow the same formula for rankings (as listed above).

Fluidity is the name of the game and if anything stands out – products that were hot months ago, may no longer be now.

But it can all change in just a short while.

Just as these rankings could too.

Update: Have a chance to win a license to one of these authoring tools, plus a few others – Survey   You must complete the entire survey (3 questions) to enter.  The only vendors who did not provide a license from this list are: Techsmith,  Brainshark, Zenler, Epic. 

Other vendors who are offering a license: MadCap Suite (in the 11-20 rankings of Feb 2012), easyGenerator (11-20 rankings), Mzinga Publisher (11-20 rankings), Training Bricks (11-20 rankings), Cm-Group Luminosity (11-20 rankings), Go! Animate (Bonus Pick) and ProProfs. 

E-Learning 24/7

34.061403 -118.312222

Before you jump into purchasing a LMS it makes sense to cover the basics, understand the jargon, decide if you want to go it alone or hire a consultant and last but not least realize you are not alone in the process.

Jargon

The industry uses a lot of jargon and it is easy to become confused. Let’s break down the most common terms and two new terms hitting the space.

• LMS – Learning Management System – most commonly sought out by folks. Can include talent management/performance management features or add-on modules (which are often built into the system, but turned off)
• LCMS – Learning Content Management System – going the way of the dodo bird
• M-Learning- Mobile Learning. This means the system can be viewed via a mobile device. It does not mean that the system comes with a native app nor offers online/offline synchronization
• E-Learning – Online Learning. Many people confuse the term thinking it means electronic learning and thus will boost that they were doing e-learning 20 years ago or even longer. Not true.
• TM/PM – Talent Management/Performance Management. Used interchangeably. The most common features within this area for a LMS, include 360 feedback, skill gap analysis, performance reviews and skill paths.
• HCM – Human Capital Management. A HCM will include such modules as compensation, payroll, recruiting (which may include career planning, job postings, etc.), benefits and HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems). You do not have to purchase all the modules. You can pick and choose or buy just one.
• RCAT – Rapid Content Authoring Tool. This is a product where you build e-learning courses. It is called rapid because you can build quickly without any real tech skill sets. Some tools offer more advanced capabilities and features for folks who have a strong ID (instructional design) or e-learning developer skill sets. Common brands under RCAT – Articulate, Lectora, Captivate, Rapid Intake, dominKnow Claro.
• Sim Tool – Simulation Tool. Geared towards ID and e-learning developer folks. Tech skill set is required. Not for novices.
• Authoring Tool. See RCAT.
• SCORM/SCORM 2004, 1.2, AICC – Please read post covering this topic
• PENS – Created by AICC in 2005. Offers some nice capabilities compared to SCORM, but not widely used.
• Users/Seats – This approach is still widely used in the industry. A seat means one user name and one password. So if you have 500 employees who will access the system every month or for the year, then you need 500 seats. Some vendors (and it is gaining steam) offer “active users”.
• Active users – People who are taking at least one course during the month. Let’s say you have 500 users, but only 100 are taking one course in May. You pay only for those 100 users. The next month, 85 use it. You pay only for 85. There are a few vendors who will charge only when the end user completes a course (but this is rare)
• E-Commerce model – It is rare, but there are vendors who offer it. It is ideal for B2B and B2C channels. The vendors who offer it (and those who do – do not make it public – so if you want it – you have to ask) tend to charge per course sold. The charge – is a percentile of the sale. You set the price of the course, video, etc. The percentiles are not outrageous.
• Tin Can API – Better known as Tin Can. Communicates instances between a system and a device. Right now works with mobile devices. Could in the future work with XBox 360, SMART TV and other items of that nature.

Requires a native app (self-contained) on the mobile device and enables online/offline synchronization. Online/Offline synchronization allows the learner to take courses, etc. offline, without an internet connection and then when they have a net connection all instances (data) is communicated back to the LMS or other SaaS product. Some RCAT vendors have the Tin Can API as well as some LMS vendors.

• API – Application Program Interface. Many systems offer you the ability to add your own APIs and vice versa.
• LRS – Learning Record Stores. The newest kid on the block. In its simplest terms:

1. Tied to the Tin Can API.
2. Stores learning activites which are records
3. The records are housed in a learning store (repository)
4. While it can be a standalone it is more likely to be a part of a LMS
5. If an employee or whomever leaves the company/org., etc. and thus the LMS, and then goes to another system (another company) their learning record can go with them. This will enable the record to be stored in the new LMS of their new employer. The same could apply to customers (although not sure why you would allow it).
6. If you decide to switch to another system who supports LRSs, the employees/customers records could be moved into the new system, assuming you are having the same courses in the new system. You can have just a few of the previous courses or some materials that they have previously used or even completed test results.
7. Reported to be the next generation for e-learning and opens up the possibility of true interoperability from one system to the next

At this point, LRSs are really not ready for prime time. As one vendor who has LRS told me, it is still a work in progress and they do not offer it to their customers.

While it has amazing potential, I have some concerns tied to privacy and security, which I believe need to be resolved. These concerns are

• Would a company want their x-employee to have their learning record which would contain information that exists within your own system? Granted it would be of learning, but I know plenty of companies who do not allow former employees to take any materials, work that was created while employed at the firm.
• How many clients -i.e. businesses would allow their employees’ learning move from their solution into another, without their consent? Again, it ties back into the previous.
• Compliance issues and privacy. What about countries who have staunch laws regarding privacy. How would this work?
• Security concerns. How much data stored in the learning record would be moved? Honestly, if I was a training director for a financial firm or aerospace/defense, I wouldn’t be likely to allow them to take their own learning record. It opens up real security issues.

Do it yourself or Hire a consultant

When it comes time to do the leg work and identify systems that you are interested in and thus take a deeper dive leading to purchasing, the first thing you must do is decide whether to go it alone or hire a consultant.

What are the advantages of hiring a consultant

• Knowledge and expertise already exists. Assuming the consultant has vast experience in finding systems for clients, the time saved is tremendous. Many consultants, including myself know the market and thus are able to jump right in and move at a quicker pace than say someone who is new or in the process of looking around.
• Looking for a system or authoring tool can be overwhelming. With over 511 LMSs on the market and more than 140 authoring tools finding the right one can be an exercise in pain and confusion. A consultant will handle it for you and thus enable you to do other things, without having to worry about finding the right system or product.
• Assist with business processes. If you have never implemented a system, needing assistance in this area will reduce resources and productivity challenges. Not all consultants can offer this, but a few like myself do.
• Eliminates creating RFPs, shooting them out everywhere and waiting for a response. Plus it eliminates the sales people following up with you and for many people they do not want to deal with that.
• Time equals money and if you can lower the time spent, the cost for hiring some consultants will be well spent.

Going to Alone

I’ve done it many times – as a training director/manager – and haven’t had any problems. I never did a RFP nor spent more time than necessary to find a system. Sure things have changed – more systems than in any previous year – but if you are willing to take the time to do it – it can be done.

You should have a plan ahead of time of what you want to do and how you want to go about it. Many people don’t and that is where you will find yourself facing challenges.

Always follow these steps, which are essential to finding a system.

• Try to avoid using a RFP template. There is one vendor out there who has it and many people use it. The problem is that it contains so much information and it is geared toward that said vendor, it will be impossible for other vendors to match every item. Plus, nowadays many vendors can tell when someone is using “said” template and will not respond.

If you are going to use a template (I will be creating one in the near future for folks to use), focus on the key features you will need. Ask them for the price of the system and have it based on the projected number of users (seats) for the first year.

Also have them list the pricing for other items such as setup, SSO (Single Sign On), additional skins (if you plan to have an extended enterprise product), additional languages (the first one is always free) and any additional modules – if you are interested in them.

You always want the items to be listed – i.e. itemized and not one lump price. Find out what is included in the setup fee and whether it is one time or yearly. Make sure to tell them to be very specific when it comes to pricing and seats. Some vendors will tell you they cannot give you a price point. That is totally bogus.

Ask them if they will provide a sandbox (trial) with full access if they are in the top three. Ask them who would be your point of contact – it may not be the person who is doing the RFP.

Even if you choose not to use a RFP, make sure to create a quick spreadsheet listing the features you want – being specific. For example: you want a calendar. But do you want to be able to have the calendar on the home page? Do you want to offer people to register for ILT or webinars on their own? Do you want a wait-list? What about e-mail notifications?

Do you need to have a template within the system? Can you track to see who opened the e-mail notifications and who did not? Do you want to have SMS (text messages), which is growing in popularity? Do you want the ability to color code different sessions, add a brief description, include pricing (if applicable)?

As you can see, just saying one item and assuming the vendor knows what you want is not enough.

Similar to using the RFP, i.e. pricing, setup, training, etc. and the other information presented above, you should do the same if you are talking directly with the sales person.

Ask for specifics. There are some vendors who will refrain from giving you pricing as if their system is a secret project for only a select few.

It makes absolutely no sense. With so many products out there – you have the leverage so use it. I know of only two vendors who fought me on pricing and I ended up walking away. If they are doing this now, what happens when I get the system.

Speaking of features, if you want mobile learning ask them for specifics. There are plenty of vendors who say they offer mobile, but really want they are saying is you can view the system via your mobile web browser.

To me this is not mobile learning. If you want on/off synch ask them. That said, I have vendors who said yes or what do you mean, so expect to provide them information.

Forecast for three years

When you are preparing your game plan, you should focus on three years. This is because that is how long it will take you to build mass. Sure, you might do it earlier, but on average it takes three years.

Let’s say you find your system and want to get down and dirty with the pricing. To score a lower price point, provide estimates on how many users will be in year two and year three. If you have 1,500 employees right now, do you think you will have the same number in three years? If you are rolling it out in stages and in year one only 75 employees will be using it, how many do you think in year two?

Many vendors are now offering/going with “active users”, which is quite beneficial to those of us who do not want to pay for folks not using the system in any given month.

Demos

Only look at products you are seriously interested in. Salespeople will want to ask you some questions ahead of time before scheduling a demo, even if you want one. You will always want to have the demo with only yourself or team and no one else.

Some vendors schedule demos, which means that anyone including you/your team can be on it. I hate that. If you are important to them, they will go one on one with you. Also there are vendors who have demos online for you to see.

The problem is that they are not full demos, but rather pieces. You want the full one and you want to see front and back end of the system. The back end is the administrator’s side.

A vendor who knows what they are doing will ask you questions ahead of time (before the demo) so it can be tailored to what you want to see and need.

Always ask to see a few systems that are skinned/branded so you can get an idea on what a system could look like because the demos are typically vanilla (i.e. no real skins).

Make sure that the designs you are seeing are ones that are included in the price and are not an additional cost i.e. heavily customized by the customer. I’ve seen a few of these and then had to ask the vendor if the client paid extra for such a design.

A vendor who does not want to show you at least the front look and feel of another client, is not worth your time.

Negotiations and Contracts

I have an extensive blog article on this topic, but in a nutshell:

• Sign only a three year deal. Nothing more, nothing less. You can renew after the three years if you like the system. Some folks who bought the Learn.com system did not care for the Taleo purchase and thus were stuck.
• Opt out clause at the end of each year of the contract. Before the next year kicks in, you want that opt out clause, which says you can leave the system without any additional penalties or fees. Vendors do not put these into contracts, so you have to negotiate for it. I have only had one vendor who refused to do this – and guess what? I said goodbye. If they aren’t willing to do this for you, how rigid are they going to be or difficult when you need some other things.
• You want a discount. Never pay street price. Within the industry the discount tends to be 15%, although some vendors are now doing only 10%. If you are a non-profit, education institution or government entity you may get an automatic discount. This is quite common with non-profits but you need to ask and will need to provide a 501 C3.
• The bigger you are – i.e. size of users/employees the better the discount should be. If you have 50,000 seats you should have a better deal than someone who has 5,00 seats (sadly, this is the case). And that deal should include a better discount.
• Always have them itemize everything. I’ve seen vendors who have said the discount is in the total price, but how do you really know? You don’t.
• Also find out if the discount is yearly or only for the first year. What I have done in the past is break out the discount over my three years. One time I had a 20% discount. So what I did was pay full price the first year (when I had less seats), take 5% the 2nd year and then 15% the third year (when I had more seats). Again, some vendors will offer the split, some won’t but you won’t know unless you ask.
• If the salesperson says he/she cannot offer a discount ask to speak to the sales manager/VP of Sales or whoever is in charge. Nothing against the salesperson, but many cannot offer great deals. However the sales executive can.

Bottom Line

Buying a LMS requires some leg work on your part.

There are more advantages for you than in the past because there are more systems. Not surprisingly there are plenty who do the same if not better than the extremely well known vendors.

More importantly, you do not have to spend 250K or higher on a system. Nor do you have to spend 60K or higher for 500 seats.

The keys to success are right there for you.

It is what you do with them that will make the difference.

E-Learning 24/7

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I love the end of the year. It enables you to look back and see the triumphs, the disappointments, the good and the bad. Many people look back and are amazed. Others look back and say “What if I did that” or “What if…”.  It is always a half full/half empty experience.

Thankfully, rather than just one person looking back and seeing what happened, we can all do so. 

I like that because it tells a story. The question though is will it be a happy or sad one?

On Fire

The year kicked off with lots of potential, lots of excitement in the air and lots of customers gearing up to purchase new systems, despite global economic woes.

Mobile Learning

• LMSs – Finally vendors took notice. Sadly though many still are in the dark on true mobile learning – i.e. not accessing their platform via a mobile web browser
• Authoring Tools – With only a small sample of vendors that are SaaS based, pickings are slim. Sure there were exceptions on the desktop side – most notably Articulate Storyline, but overall until desktop vendors see the advantages of SaaS, especially with real time collaboration and peer review, tablets will be slow going
• Web Conferencing – You would think that all these services would have a native app for tablets. You would think that they would maximize the power of the iPad 2 and iPad 3? You would be wrong. Frankly a few deserve coal in their stockings.

Market as a whole

Despite overall consumer demand (not just within e-learning) for tablets, and numbers showing that tablets are outselling notebooks, e-learning vendors as whole are sitting back and waiting. Those who aren’t are either offering native apps with online/offline synch or performing the shell game via the mobile web browser and calling it mobile learning.

The number of vendors who went mobile with tablets at the start of the year was extremely small compared to where it stands at the end of 2012.  A win in my book.

Online/Offline Synch

I am quite amazed at the number of vendors who really have zero idea on what the terminology of online/offline synchronization. I still get the yeah we do that, only to find out upon further discussion, that they don’t have it.  In the simplest terms:

• Joe EndUser (and yes, I know it is two words, but that is his last name), who is currently online is accessing the system or tool via his mobile device (preferably a tablet). He leaves the office or the coffee shop or his house and loses his internet connection. The courses are still on his device. He decides to bounce around the course and complete a few sections or goes linear and completes the entire course.

The next day or whenever he has a connection to the Internet, his data gets pushed out from the device and pulled into the platform or tool.

Synchronization has now been completed. All that data and information is now within the system and nothing is lost.

Here is a list of LMS vendors who offer online/offline synchronization via a mobile device, although there are a few who offer this but only via a laptop/desktop)

• AJ Square – but it is a separate module you have to purchase
• CertPoint VLS Portals – but only to a laptop or CD Rom – so not a mobile device
• Edubrite
• eLogic Learning
• Expertus One
• exact learning
• G-Cube
• IMC-Clix
• Learn Dash – a LMS on WordPress – but you must add TinCan API on your own
• All the Open source systems – again you must add TinCan API on your own
• Litmos – but only assessments
• Latitude Learning – only if you have the open source solution and you must add TinCan API on your own
• OnPoint Digital – M-Learning platform
• Pelesys – but the m-learning platform – available only for aviation industry
• Saba
• Steag
• Sum Total Systems
• Sum Total Maestro
• Syberworks
• TestTrack
• Upside Learning
• WBT Systems
• WordLearn
• VTraining Room

Cognetys offers it too but it is via their authoring tool partner, dominKnow Claro.

Authoring Tools

• Templates
• Avatars, Image characters, backgrounds that are business or work oriented
• Audio editing – still no match to Audacity, a free program
• Collaborative/Peer Review – but only one vendor enables the ability to work on the same course in real time with multiple authors – they just have to be in separate pages
• Notes/Notepad/Note taking
• Leaving comments with date/time stamps, making corrections, editing
• Increase in number of vendors

Social Learning

Overall, it wins the Grinch award for continued stagnation. Enough already with FB like pages.

Create your own news board, beyond just some RSS feeds? What about adding Goolge+1, video hangouts, or perhaps coming up with something on your own without replicating what is out there?

Thankfully, there were some concepts that were fresh and worked.

• Communities tied to courses rather than the entire platform. However those that followed this approach provided groups – with group chat, file repositories, discussion boards, forums, blogs, wikis and so on.
• Standalone platforms that were designed for their system but could be used either as a pure social learning standalone or via an API part of your own LMS. Best example? Ensemba by Media Defined.
• APIs of various social sites with Linkedin growing at a quick pace. Standards are Facebook and Twitter

APIs

A really nice upswing with more and more vendors having APIs readily available for end users (without the end user having to go find it). Favorites included:

• Skype
• Dropbox
• Yammer
• Salesforce
• Paypal

Newbies:

• Office 365
• Google – including Google Maps, Google Charts, Google Docs, etc.
• Mailchimp – e-mail marketing
• Google Calendar

Once Cold, now gaining steam

• Widgets
• Courses included in LMSs without you paying extra for them
• Selling courses online via your Next Gen Lite LMS, e-learning marketplace or even your LMS
• Video platforms, including video streaming – but still only a handful offering video editing
• Built in SEO (search engine optimization), e-mail marketing, marketing tools, CRMs (customer relationship mgt – used for sales)
• iCal – enabling integration of Outlook, Gmail and other internet e-mail providers tied to calendars within the LMS, thus webinars, seminars, etc. auto show up in their preferred e-mail calendar

My Forecasts for 2012

In looking back, six out of seven turned out to be on the mark. 

The ones that came to fruition were:

• Talent management – continued growth, rapid at that. 
• Social learning – forecast was that it would remain flat. It did.
• M-Learning – expecting it to be hot, and it hasn’t disappointed. Sure you could argue that not everyone has gone online/offline synch. Considering that the number was zero at the start of 2012. I would say that there definitely was a boost.

 As for m-learning in general related to tablets, there are a lot of systems offering it, even if it is via the mobile web browser. Numbers at the start of 2012 were dismal.  

• SaaS systems – i.e. LMSs – Roughly 95% are SaaS based at the end of 2012, with a percentile offering both options but pushing more for SaaS only.
• Online Authoring systems – the forecast stated that there would be a huge upswing and continued growth. Again, the numbers show this to be true.

The vast majority of these OASs are now next gen lite LMSs, but there are those who list themselves as collaborative learning environments, and an authoring system that is pure SaaS.  

One sort of did

• My forecast on Kinect identified that it would be quite slow out of the gate in 2012, but that there would be some growth by the end of the year with some vendors. The forecast stating growth in K-12 did.
• Kinect vendors in the consumer space did show up, they just didn’t cross over to the e-learning side, with the exception of two. 

One dud

• Augmented Reality. Everything indicated that this was going to show up in 2012, and it did in the consumer marketplace, but not really on the e-learning side. Sure there were some exceptions with people doing their own thing, but from an e-learning vendor standpoint, just did not happen. 

While I did stipulate that I saw Kinect technology more so than AR in e-learning, the truth be told, vendors stayed away. 

Bottom Line

Overall the e-learning market continued to show gains and benefits across the board.  This really could be seen at the ASTD International show which has always been known as a true ILT (instructor led training) angle, with materials.  

This year the show by my estimation was 60% pure instructor led/classroom based products and 40% e-learning. Some of the ILT vendors were providing components and offerings that were pure online. 

Based on conversations I had with vendors across the space, everyone told me that the broke sales numbers. Not just in comparison to the past couple of years, but all time (for those who were more than three years old). 

To me, this is the real story. 

And who doesn’t like happy endings?

Please note: There will not be a blog next week. The next blog will be on January 3, 2013 and will cover Learning Record Stores. 

E-Learning 24/7

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